The year is 1981, and Jennings and her husband, Philip (Matthew Rhys), are posing as two boring suburbanites outside Washington, D.C. They're really Soviet spies, trained to blend into the PTA circuit. They even hide their identities from their two children. And — given the arranged nature of their “marriage,” and the fact that Elizabeth's duties include sleeping with other men — they do a pretty thorough job of keeping their true feelings from each other.

Alas, things get a little sticky when their new neighbor, Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), shows up. He's an affable guy who just happens to work for ... the FBI.